Linux Networx develops a LiSP

Supercomputer with a turnkey

SC06 Linux Networx wants to make supercomputers affordable for the Average Joe – or at least the Average Joe running complex crash/impact analysis.

The hardware vendor this week launched a fresh line of LS-P systems, which it bills as "turnkey" kit for the high performance computing crowd. We were told that Linux Networx was "too busy" to brief us about its hardware, so we're going to do our best with the company's cryptic statement.

Linux Networx uses a lot of phrases like "best-of-breed," "tightly integrated," and "time-to-productivity" to describe the LS-P gear. By this, we think the vendor simply means that it has certified specific sets of software to run on a specific server/storage/networking combination. And rather than selling you the disparate parts that make up this computing system, Linux Networx will assemble the bundle in-house and then ship it.

The first LS-P boxes will be tuned for the computational fluid dynamics (CFD), crash/impact analysis and structural analysis crowd and ship in the first quarter of 2007.